Over the weekend at Summer Game Fest, I was fortunate enough to spend an hour immersed in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, a forthcoming action game developed by Leenzee and published by 505 Games. Despite not being particularly skilled or experienced in this genre, I quickly discovered that it wasn’t shy about challenging me – a fact that became abundantly clear throughout my playtime with the demo. To be honest, if it weren’t for another equally demanding indie game, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers might have easily claimed the title for most in-game deaths I experienced at Summer Game Fest this year. Ultimately, while there were certainly some impressive aspects to Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, it didn’t quite manage to leave a lasting impression on me.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a solid souls-like game, but it’s not perfect
In the game Wuchang, it effortlessly lives up to its Souls-like genre. The action is tough and unforgiving; even the weakest adversaries can deal significant damage, and I was swiftly defeated by the two bosses I faced without much trouble. However, a Souls-like game isn’t merely about demanding action. Upon death, you drop your resources at the spot, and it’s your task to retrieve those lost items before you die again and lose them forever. In Wuchang, the resource that serves this purpose is called Red Mercury, which you accumulate to level up and enhance your abilities.
Apart from that, Wuchang pushes boundaries in an intriguing manner. In the opening stages of the game, Wuchang realizes she’s been stricken with a baffling sickness. Strange feathers start growing on people and gradually transform them into monstrous beings, which triggers a ‘madness’ mechanism. As your madness escalates each time you meet an untimely death or slay a human instead of a monster, it leads to a more complex predicament. If your madness reaches a critical level, when you die next, instead of merely retrieving your Red Mercury from the ground, you’ll have to engage in combat with a formidable demon warrior at your death site. Overcoming this adversary and reclaiming your experience points is an option, or you could risk losing it all by failing again. This added difficulty level catches you off guard the first time it occurs, and becomes a daunting prospect to ponder upon subsequently.
As a seasoned gamer diving into the world of Wuchang, I’ve got to say, the action is tight and well-crafted. If you’re someone who’s battled your way through numerous action games, you probably won’t find anything groundbreaking here, but that’s not a bad thing. The thrill of perfectly timing a dodge to unlock more potent abilities is undeniable. The core combat revolves around target locking and strategically timing your attacks.
During my hour-long demo, I had the chance to wield three different weapons: a swift sword, a beefy axe, and a versatile spear. Each one felt unique and provided its own delight in various scenarios. The cool part is that you can carry two of them at once and switch between them on the fly.
Even after an hour of gameplay, I didn’t feel like I had fully mastered combat, but I definitely made some headway. It’s a testament to the game’s depth and encourages me to keep improving my skills.
One potential issue with the gameplay is that adversaries will reappear. While this isn’t unique, in a difficult game such as this one, it turned respawning into a tedious task. Checkpoints were located at a distance, so I frequently had to go back and repeat my journey while battling the same enemies over and over again. This can be acceptable, but after an hour of play, it did become monotonous.
During the lengthy demo, it seemed that the least engaging part was whenever I had to interact with NPCs. These interactions were mostly one-sided, with the NPCs delivering lengthy speeches while my character or I had no opportunity to respond. In essence, the NPCs would speak at length without much variation as both the character and camera remained static. The voiceovers were delivered gradually, often extending beyond what was required to get the message across.
At the start within the temple, only a few individuals were present for conversation. I chose to engage with a man who was lying on a bed, swathed in bandages, writhing in pain. He appeared to be suffering from the same illness as Wuchang. Without any intervention from me, this NPC revealed his entire life story. Once a warrior, he had been confined to his bed due to this feathery sickness. He felt humiliated that his brother was responsible for procuring medicine for him. He requested me to take a pendant into town, locate a woman, and inform her that he has decided to venture out into the world to establish a name for himself, returning only when he’s achieved his goal. Due to his embarrassment, he couldn’t disclose the truth to her. It was a heart-wrenching tale, but by the end of it, after regaining control over Wuchang and the camera, I didn’t look back as he coughed out his final words of dialogue.
It’s fortunate that many of these interactions are optional, so following a few exchanges, I chose not to engage with anyone else in the temple anymore. If I were playing this game at my own pace instead of during an hour-long demo at Summer Game Fest, I might have been more comfortable investing time to get to know the game’s NPCs better. However, that wouldn’t alleviate the discomfort of having no influence or power over the dialogue, of simply having to listen and wait for the monologue to finish.
You don’t need to wait much longer if you want to develop your own viewpoint. The game Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is set to release on July 24, 2025. It can be played on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store. Pre-orders are currently open. A big thanks goes out to Leenzee and 505 Games for allowing us to experience this demanding souls-like game.
Read More
2025-06-10 23:02